


Secret Treasures of the Uchiha

by TimeLoopedPowerGamer



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Arranged Marriage, Clan Politics, Drama, F/F, F/M, Love, Martial Arts, Multi, Not actually porn, Revenge, Romance, Sexual Content, Teen Romance, Teenagers, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-14
Updated: 2013-04-24
Packaged: 2017-12-05 06:59:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/720174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeLoopedPowerGamer/pseuds/TimeLoopedPowerGamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke has two ambitions. He has seen the impossibility of one with Itachi in an anonymous hotel corridor, where he barely escaped with a broken arm and his life. He had sort of planned on leaving the other until he killed his brother, but Hiashi Hyūga has a surprise for him. Will finding the hidden underground storehouse of the Uchiha solve all his problems?</p><p>An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings on content** : Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.
> 
>  **Special Note for AO3** : This is not a porn fic. Most of this story is plot, but there are teenagers, so stuff happens. The archive tags (which I don't like and am thinking of removing) are to make sure people don't see something they don't want to see, so I'm using them conservatively.
> 
> There is no violent child rape in this story, despite what the tags might suggest. This is a romance with ninja action, with the occasional sexy scene. There are situations of questionable consent (which I note in the chapter it happens in), people under the age of 18 having sexual experiences, and explicitly described acts of violence. You've been warned.
> 
>  **History** : This story was originally posted on FanFiction.net under my account (same username) at [ Secret Treasures of the Uchiha](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8782164/1/Secret-Treasures-of-the-Uchiha). Cleaned-up chapters are being added to AO3 as I finish them. New updates will be posted in both locations once I've caught up.
> 
> **Notes on Japanese language mangling:**
> 
> I'm trying to use the shortest, most flavorful words where possible. Sometimes those are the English or western-preferred terms, like Leaf (it seems strange to call the village just “Leaf,” so I use Konoha when referring to it – not entirely correct) or ninja (useful because it is genderless). I also use male and female specific Japanese terms (shinobi and kunoichi [which is actually really offensive, but I digress], respectively) when they feel right to me. Sometimes, I use the Japanese terms instead of longer English literals, like with shunshin (the Body Flicker technique). All is kept as standardized as possible to keep the best flow. Hope it works out and reads well.
> 
> **A note on names:** I use western order for names (Given then Family) instead of Japanese (Family then Given), except for Maito Gai (I'm using the Japanese order and name because I hate Kishimoto's playful names sometimes [all the time]).
> 
> **It gets worse:** To not use the typical anime-influenced, name-plus-suffix style would take a lot away from the Naruto 'verse flavor. I'm using it primarily to indicate the most hard to translate relationship stuff, where in English they might say “sir” or “cutie” or something else. If Sakura calls her crush “Sasuke,” it just doesn't feel the same. So Hinata stays ultra-formal (as best as I can do), except when she slips with Naruto's name, Sasuke skips it because he's an ass unless he is forced to, everyone calls their sensei by familiar names plus, etc. This also means that sometimes I'll run into full name plus suffix. Which I'll avoid entirely, because it looks and “sounds” weird in western name order. Sometimes, this might get weird. I'll keep it under control, promise.

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
** by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer** : Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary** : An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content** : Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter One**

This had been the worst week in Sasuke's recent memory. No contest, at least since he had became a ninja. Even that awful training in Wave, after Kakashi had almost killed himself fighting that nukenin, had been better. He had direction and drive then. A reason to prove himself, even if it was only against his stupid teammate Naruto. Kakashi had provided leadership, though it had been presented in a lazy, half-assed, sloppy sort of way, and he'd been part of a team. A pathetic, weak team, but _his_ team. He'd had hope – hope for the future of his clan, hope in his own growing strength, hope that he could complete the most important of his two goals in life – revenge.

Now...now he was adrift. Standing with his arms folded in the bright sun in the middle of a grassy field at training ground #72, he waited for the next humiliation that life had dumped on him to begin. Waiting there in the shining sun his mind was filled with dark thoughts. His team was missing, useless, and badly injured. He had proven only his own weakness and stupidity. His hated brother had gotten away. And now, his next great challenge to his strength as a shinobi was waiting for a pathetic, weak little girl so he could beat the secrets of her stuck-up clan's taijutsu style from her tiny body.

Somehow everything had gone wrong, but he would not give up. Uchiha did not give up. Even if he had to train himself, even if he needed to find every secret of his clan alone, even if he had to suffer the indignity of working with weaklings and idiots, he would persevere. Between the newly discovered secret underground storehouse of the Uchiha and his plan to challenge himself and his power against Neji Hyūga, he finally saw a glimmer of hope again.

Sasuke clenched his hands, digging his fingernails into his palms. Hope he'd carve from the world with his bare hands if he had to, starting with Hinata Hyūga.

* * *

**ONE WEEK AGO**

The smell of flowers and perfume filled his head as Sasuke regained consciousness. It wasn't enough to obscure the scent of hospital, though, one Sasuke knew as well as most active shinobi. Not opening his eyes, he stretched out his senses. He wasn't alone in the room.

A page turned. Someone sighed softly. Perfume. A girl. Oh no, not her. Sasuke opened his eyes to a slit, confirming his skinny, pink-haired, fangirl of a teammate was sitting vigil at his bedside, reading some trashy novel. Maybe he could escape without her noticing. She wasn't a very observant kunoichi, after all.

Sasuke tested himself before taking action. Every muscle group was carefully flexed a minute amount, one by one, toes to head. His feet and legs still hurt from the long run to the small nearby village, so he hadn't been out long. Left lower arm was wrapped up but not hurting too much. Pain meds, sure, but he could move it slightly and it didn't burn like hot cinders were shoved inside, so it was most likely almost totally repaired by mednins already. He'd have to stay off it for a few days, no fancy gymnastics for now, but that wouldn't slow him down too much. It wasn't his first broken bone, after all.

What really slowed him down was that he was naked under the sheet. He cursed himself – a real shinobi, a strong shinobi, wouldn't care about being naked or not, he'd do what was required. His equipment was on the table beside his bed but his shirt would have been cut off to treat his broken arm, leaving only his pants. Annoying.

Being a private person, Sasuke was normally very body-conscious. Having hordes of fangirls after him only emphasized in his mind the necessity of proper decorum and not being naked in front of drooling 13 year old girls. Sakura was one of the worst, and having her on his team had been pure torture. She was so weak, so useless, more so even than that blond idiot. But she was waiting by his bedside for some reason, once again in his way. Sasuke realized he'd have to nip this in the bud fast before whatever hospital room drama she'd planned got started. He opened his eyes and coughed intentionally loudly.

“Sasuke-kun! You're awake!” shrieked the pink harpy. He said nothing, sitting up and reaching for his kunai and equipment belt with his uninjured hand. The sheet covering him shifted, leaving his chest bare. Sakura started to say something else loud and stupid, but was momentarily left speechless, staring his his body.

“Sakura,” he said, dragging his equipment onto his bed. “W-what is it Sasuke-kun?” she stammered out, still not making eye contact.

“Leave,” he said quietly.

“W-what?”

“I'm getting dressed. Now. Leave.” She started to sputter but he just began sorting his equipment into piles. Seeing she wasn't leaving fast enough and was about to say something more, he decided he simply didn't care and started getting out of bed, the sheets sliding the rest of the way off his body, his back to her chair but still totally bare. Damn, the floor was cold.

He heard a girlish squeak, a clatter, and then the sound of feet running followed by the sound of the door quickly opening and slamming closed again. She'd dropped her book on the floor and knocked over the chair on her way out, but at least she was gone. Most likely to get a nurse. Time to move.

Pants on, equipment in pockets and belt pouches, shoes located on the floor next to his bed. His feet and legs had been wrapped in clean bandages and he located a sling for his arm. After roughly tying his headband back on one-handed, he was as dressed as he needed to be for now.

Concentrating for a second, he activated his Sharingan. Everything went strange and milky-looking. The knife he spun in his hand seemed to be in slow motion then his hand suddenly veined with chakra as he closed his fist around it and focused. Good, everything was still working.

Not wanting to deal with getting himself officially released from the Konoha hospital and hoping to avoid additional fan-girl entanglements, Sasuke simply left through the window. Before he know where he was headed he found himself silently making his way to the Uchiha clan compound. Cast still on his arm, he wandered out of the growing shadows and through the compound's large gates. Like five years earlier after that horrible night, he stumbled into the empty streets, straight out of his hospital bed, his mind full of confusion and hate and his body aching. The streets were still as silent as that night, all the buildings now boarded up instead of horribly gaping and empty. The evidence of past horrors was wiped away by the years and cleanup crews.

He went directly to his family's spread-out mansion – a large, low-set building fronting onto the main street – and tried to get his thoughts together. The mansion was staffed by a civilian caretaker crew, which kept out of sight and were the only people other than himself allowed into the compound. Sasuke always spent a single night in the house every year, the night of the massacre. The staff kept a bedroom and some clothes for him, though he never visited other than that one night each year. He found some clean clothes that fit him in a closet and headed back to the hospital and to scout out Konoha for information on what the hell had happened. After officially checking out (and getting some more pain medication) he found out that Kakashi was in the hospital, injured in a fight yesterday with Itachi.

“So that was why he's been unconscious in that room,” he thought. “My brother was actually _in K_ _o_ _noha_. What is wrong with these people, allowing nukenin to simply wander around the village? They are so weak.”

Later that day, back at his empty family mansion, Sasuke sat in a silent and slightly dusty room and sulked. He'd quietly grabbed some supplies from his apartment and retreated here. No one was allowed in the clan compound without explicit permission, which he never gave anyone. No one would bother him here. No one cared anyway.

But now his teacher, the only one who even bothered to pretend to care about him, was lying unconscious in the hospital. Naruto had left the village, most likely with that Sannin Jiraiya, to do Kami knows what. Sakura was still stalking him and he was almost sure she knew where his central Konoha apartment was located, but she wasn't allowed inside the clan compound. Serious training was off. He hadn't been able to do anything more than basic physical exercise that day but the soft cast would come off at the end of the week. Mednin were almost tolerable simply because of that increased healing time, despite how weak they were in actual combat.

Trudging around the empty mansion from room to empty room, his thoughts grew darker and darker. He couldn't handle it anymore, he had to get outside the compound. He was going crazy in this empty building. Grabbing his equipment, he almost ran to get out of there. Silently flowing through the shadows to the edge of town, he located a seldom used training area and started a simple calisthenics routine. Attempting any difficult katas with an injury like this was inviting poor practice results and bad habits developing. Best to keep it simple for now.

Working until he collapsed took longer nowadays then it used to, especially without using seal techniques, but holding Tree Walking and Water Walking techniques until near exhaustion still worked. Anything requiring hand seals would have to wait, but (unlike Naruto) he could do both basic chakra exercises without dramatic gestures and total concentration. It still requited focus and tiring amounts of chakra, though, so he kept at it. Anything to keep him from having to think about what had happened.

A day later, his ears were still ringing with his brother's words: _You're in the way._

Instead of continuing to mope, he formed a plan. His inspiration had come from the secret his brother had told him that horrible night. A hidden room with a tablet, secrets he'd only been able to fully read after that disastrous mission in Wave, where he'd activated his Sharingan for the first time. The secrets, about the Mangekyō Sharingan and how to acquire it, weren't...exactly what his brother had claimed. Maybe he could find something to clarify. It couldn't be as bad as his brother made it sound. Maybe the Uchiha clan had hidden something else, something that would explain why he had to kill his best friend to get this power. He wouldn't give up until he had answers.

He found it in one day. He hadn't expected it to be that simple. It had been the seventh building he'd searched for hidden secrets where he'd achieved success. A public meeting hall of some sort, in the main clan council building. Finding the entrance had involved solving a strange geometric puzzle, one he wouldn't have noticed without searching the architecture of the building with his Sharingan activated. The shapes had fooled his eye, appearing to writhe and coil on the walls, his eyes tricked into illusions of movement by the geometry.

After touching the shapes he'd found in the correct order on the prominently located mosaic, pushing his chakra into them one by one, a hidden stairway downward formed out of the stones of the floor. His Sharingan saw the device use his donated chakra to activate previously invisible seals, unrolling the stone stairs down into the darkness.

Sasuke now stood in front of a large stone door at the end of a dark tunnel, a secret passageway under the Uchiha clan council chambers. He'd set out to find a secret, a weapon, a jutsu scroll, something left by his dead clan that would give him an edge. A shortcut to power that he desperately needed. Now that he saw it, it was obvious. Of course there would be underground storehouses under the Uchiha compound – they had been founders of the village, here longer than anyone else. They had time to dig into the ground like moles, hiding secrets there from prying eyes.

At the end of the passage, a stone door slid open slowly before him, his sacrificial blood soaking into the waiting depression. “Blood of the Clan Opens the Way” the message said in the clan message code, something that Sasuke had learned before even entering the Academy. Secrets taught to him by his mother as soon as he could read. Like the Naka Shrine's hidden tablet, this was another secret of the Uchiha that would be lost forever, once he and his brother were dead. One he'd never have thought to look for if it hadn't been for the encounter with his hated brother and his cowardly survival.

His cursed mark burned on his neck, reacting to his anger, offering him instant power yet again. He shoved it down, using his will to maintain Kakashi's seal. It quickly went silent again and the pain receded into a dull ache. It was too soon to risk drawing on an unknown gift like that, given by a powerful and deceitful foe like Orochimaru. Knowing his brother had somehow achieved unbelievable power even before killing his cousin Shisui, and without the snake Sannin's help, he was now driven to seek out some other answer after his most recent failure.

He wouldn't follow his hated brother's path – that was what he'd wanted Sasuke to do, what he'd told Sasuke was his fate before facing him again. He'd tried to rush it. Even knowing he didn't have the power, he'd challenged Itachi and had been utterly defeated. At least he'd realized that before throwing away his life following his hateful brother's questionable advice. Staring into the long, dark hallway, blood still dripping from his slashed thumb, his mind cast back to that fight and his complete failure.

* * *

He had attacked with all his strength, his most powerful technique.

It hadn't been enough. _He_ hadn't seemed to even move, just casually grabbed his arm and redirected the Chidori into the wall, harmlessly. Then _he_ turned around and ignored him. Like Sasuke was nothing. Still too weak to matter. _That person_ was a giant. Untouchable. Monstrous. How could he hope to ever even lay a hand on _him_ , let along kill _him_.

He was saying something about something called Akatsuki and kidnapping Naruto, but that obviously wasn't happening with one of the Sannin around. Itachi couldn't be that powerful – could he?

Sasuke lay on the ground, his left arm burned from his own Chidori and bones broken by his brother's casual grasp. “It was so easy for Itachi. He could have killed me effortlessly,” Sasuke realized as his eyes burned with tears of pain and frustration.

“I could try again,” Sasuke thought. “I've got to get up! Got to kill him! He's right there!”

Using his other hand to lever himself up, his mind going blank from pain, Sasuke tried to stand, tried to find the strength to continue to fight. His hated brother wasn't even looking at him, just standing talking to the Sannin, Jiraiya. As usual, everyone was talking about Naruto – Sasuke didn't even matter to his brother.

Taking gasping breaths and trying to muster his remaining strength, his head finally started clearing. “It doesn't make sense,” he suddenly thought through the haze of pain. “What was so important about that idiot that everyone would risk so much, literally fighting over him? All the village hated Naruto, that much was obvious. His team didn't like him, the other ninjas didn't like him. Why were they protecting him like this? Was it his strange new strength?”

Sasuke had seen Naruto come from nowhere in the last month of the Chūnin exam – from still obviously being his same old dead last abilities to fighting and defeating the Sand jinchūriki during that horrible day of the invasion. That power had been...insane, washing over Sasuke with an evil aura, far worse than he expected from the stories his father had told about beasts that leveled mountains. And Naruto hadn't seemed to even notice. It had been as bad or worse than Orochimaru's killing aura and the blond idiot had just kept fighting like nothing was happening. There was something wrong with him, something that gave him the strength to beat not only Neji but Gaara in his fully transformed and released form.

Sasuke knew he had been close to dying when Naruto had showed up and basically saved his life and possibly the entire village. The fight after that (what he remembered) had been unreal. After Naruto had saved his ass (and Sakura's, but she had been useless), it had quickly spiraled out of control, with giant summons and transformation jutsu larger than Sasuke had ever seen before. The shear quantity of chakra required for that kind of combat was staggering. The obvious answer was that Naruto was stronger than Sasuke had ever realized. Surpass his brother? Sasuke hadn't even surpassed his teammate, dead last at the academy.

He wanted to stand, to strike his brother, to see him dead and bleeding on the floor, to do to him what Itachi had done to his parents, to his entire clan. He burned with that hate. But his body betrayed him. Instead of attempting to stand, Sasuke dragged himself away from the others to prop his back against the wall.

Despair set in. He was too slow, too weak. Even Naruto was stronger than he was now. And his arm was injured, his best move countered. His murderous rage started fading into hopelessness. This had been a mistake. He couldn't do this. His revenge, his very reason for living, for waking up in the mornings, for not ending it all, was looking impossible. Unreachable.

All strength then left his body. He listlessly watched the Sannin, his brother, and that random Akatsuki guy posture and threaten each other. A small scuffle and the Sannin used some strange summon to change the entire hallway. He said something about no one escaping and toads. Sasuke didn't care anymore. There was no way even the Sannin could kill his brother. Sure enough, the strange guy in the cloak and his brother burned a hole in the fleshy wall and simply left. Not really running, just repositioning for a future attack. “What had brother told me about ninja tactics?” he thought numbly. “Something like, 'never retreat, simply advance in another direction.'”

Sasuke slowly slumped sideways, losing consciousness as the Sannin did something to the strange black fire on the wall with a scroll. It didn't matter, Sasuke thought. Nothing mattered but somehow getting strong enough to kill _that man_. Darkness reached out to claim him but he still didn't care.

* * *

For the next two days after his discovery, Sasuke simply woke up, ate, practiced all day, searched hidden clan tunnels for secrets, returned home, bathed, ate, and then slept, trying to avoid thinking about either his failure or the future and his impossible task of revenge. On the fourth day he visited Kakashi in the hospital again, now learning how the most powerful jōnin he'd ever met had been reduced to lying in bed in a coma that they couldn't revive him from. They still didn't know how to treat him. He might never wake up.

The rumors said that, in less than a minute of combat, three Leaf jōnin had been soundly defeated by the two nukenin, his brother and the Akatsuki shark dude. It was only Maito Gai showing up, making it four on two, that ended the conflict, but with the nukenin still escaping unharmed. No one seemed to know what the shark guy's abilities were, so it had likely been just his brother actively fighting against the three jōnin. The results were clear, regardless of the rumors: Kakashi, one of the strongest shinobi in the village, had been effortlessly defeated while part of a group of other jōnin, in the middle of Konoha. Once again, Sasuke wondered how he'd ever match that level of power.

Immediately after escaping from the hospital, he'd meditated on his failure against Itachi and found several important mistakes, including: fighting while exhausted from rushing to find Naruto, not using his Sharingan correctly, attacking head-on instead of from ambush, not having a plan on how to continue the attack, and not even attempting to use the cursed mark (however dangerous that might have been).

“That was strangest of all,” he thought, looking down at his unconscious sensei. Kakashi had sealed the mark from Orochimaru during the Chūnin Exam, with a promise extracted that Sasuke would not use it. The seal was based on his own chakra and willpower, so using it was his choice. If he had activated it during the exam, he would have been disqualified, his sensei had said. But against his brother, he shouldn't have hesitated. With it activated in the Forest of Death, he'd defeated three chūnin level ninja, and done so easily. He should have claimed that power to use against his brother. But it hadn't even occurred to him.

Kakashi had said the power gained from the Cursed Seal of Heaven was dark, and would rot his body the more he used it. Even if he believed his sensei, that shouldn't have stopped him from calling on it in his hour of need. Looking back though, he saw it wouldn't have been enough. Most likely, it wouldn't have made any difference in that fight as his brother was so far above him in power. So he still needed to improve a great deal to even think about challenging his brother. And if the seal really was a trap, one designed to hurt him instead of help, he'd simply have to improve that much more to make up for not being able to use it to his advantage. Which brought him back to more urgent issues – _how_ to grow stronger.

His current situation was clear. Sensei disabled, one teammate missing and most likely getting personal training from a legendary Sannin, and the pink-haired one so useless as to not enter into any plans. So, once again, Sasuke was left with solo training. At least with Naruto around, Kakashi had let them spar all the time. Naruto was good for a punching bag, at least. Anything was better than smacking a wooden post. Kami, he hated solo training.

After the hospital visit, he went off to what he was now thinking of as his training ground (#72, the nearest to the Uchiha compound) to resume his training. He'd been working out for about two hours when something tripped his finely honed senses: he was being watched.

Continuing his kick strikes practice against the post (he hated posts so much) while subtly moving so his back wasn't to the hidden person's location, he considered his options. He could ignore it – he lived in a fucking Hidden Village, so someone was sneaking around near him practically every day. It might just be some chūnin playing around or maybe an ANBU watching him for the usual security reasons.

It would be insulting if the latter, as ANBU shouldn't be detectable even by his keen senses, so letting him knew they were there was suggesting he wasn't worth hiding from. But it would be simply annoying if the former, as he should be getting more respect than being the stalking target of some upstart chūnin. If only his fight in the finals hadn't been interrupted by international terrorists and a village war, everyone could have seen his true strength.

Despite that, he'd surely get promoted, but that wouldn't happen until the Hokage succession was worked out. Hopefully Naruto would be back by then, not that the idiot was a sure thing for promotion but he had made it to the end and won his first fight in the finals. Maybe the blond disaster would get luck and be promoted too. Not his pink-haired teammate, though. Sakura's prelim fight had been...bad. No way was she getting promoted.

The problem now was how to react to someone shadowing his training. As Shikamaru would say: troublesome. There was literally no killing intent showing, so they most likely weren't trying to hurt him. Even if they were, let them come. He'd show them his strength, even if they were a chūnin. The Uchiha didn't back down and would defeat all challengers, and he was the last loyal Uchiha. The honor of his clan was on his back now. But this was still throwing his training off, so he decided to wrap-up early and return to his full training time tomorrow.

Quickly gathering up his backpack, he left the training ground for his house at full speed, doubling back and hiding a few times to make sure he wasn't being followed just for practice. It wasn't like it would be hard to figure out where he was going, though – everyone knew the Uchiha symbol on his back and where the now-empty compound was. It was illegal to enter without Clan permission, though, so except for ANBU (who were exempt from that law) no one tried to trespass there. Still, good practice at actually being a shinobi, something the rest of his loser team didn't seem to understand.

Naruto was more like a rolling natural disaster than a stealthy shinobi and Sakura was useless at anything but hiding under a bush. Sasuke thought they might be literally the worst ninja in the village, which would be consistent with his luck so far in life. Practicing stalking and hiding wasn't very challenging with them. Maybe if this mysterious stalker showed up again he could have some fun.

Heading out the next day for training, he kept his senses on high alert – more good practice. The world should be his battlefield and situational awareness was one of the first lessons Itachi had tried to drill into him. He wouldn't fail to be vigilant, especially now with the village recovering from a huge attack – it could be a spy or assassin, after all.

His brother was on his mind again. Sasuke wondered what had he been like at his age. How had he grown so strong, so fast? He was a genius, sure, but it was incredible what he had achieved. He had been working full time as a chūnin from age 10 and still had the time to train to jōnin level skills in near record time. He spent most of his spare time with their cousin Shisui, another legendary Uchiha, so maybe that was the secret to his success. If only one of his clan was still alive to help, he wouldn't be spending all of his time in solo practice.

Working into the third hour of training, he suddenly detected his stalker again, hiding behind a tree. Sasuke grinned. It was time to take out some of his frustrations on whoever was being so foolish as to spy on him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
** by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

 **Disclaimer** : Naruto isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

It felt like the same chakra signature, almost hidden to his Sharingan and with no killing intent. Strange. Maybe someone other than ANBU was monitoring him. Possible that some genin team was using him for stalk and hide exercises, annoying as that would be. Team training wasn't to be interfered with but his solo practice sessions had no such protection. If that was the case, maybe showing them how bad they were at hiding would help. Stopping his kicking drill, Sasuke instantly spun in place and threw a kunai into the ground in front of the low brush hiding his stalker. Placement was perfect, of course – it was a sort of warning shot not a real attack on his part.

“Show yourself,” he said, his voice loud and monotone, while retrieving another kunai from his pouch and holding it ready.

The brush squeaked loudly and violently shook, reveling a young girl in a bulky coat wearing a Leaf headband around her neck. Her hands were empty and timidly raised in front of her in surrender. He took one look at her and was disgusted. Hinata Hyūga was easy to recognize, both from his Academy class and from the Chūnin Exam Finals prelim where she'd lost so disgracefully.

Such a weak demeanor was embarrassing, even for a girl. He had hated how all the females at the Academy always acted so soft and submissive, like being a ninja was a game they were playing with their girlfriends. It was so revolting seeing them just prance through their lessons with mediocre scores in the practical exams let alone their fangirl actions whenever he was around. Most of the mature kunoichi he saw in the village were at least acting and dressing like ninja, which was more than he saw in his classmates.

Hinata wasn't the worst of them and at least she wasn't a fangirl, but she was always so quiet, no aggression even in her Academy sparing sessions. He'd never paired up with her for some reason, but even as a little kid without the Sharingan he had still been able to tell how weak she was. No initiative, awkward in the Academy style, and even during the Chūnin Exam's preliminary fight she'd still been massively outclassed by another Hyūga only a year older than her, one that wasn't even in the main house.

And now here she stood, fidgeting and staring at her feet. “What does she want?” he wondered silently. He wasn't about to demean himself by asking, though. Waiting for her to say something was an exercise in frustration, as he had to watch her practically vibrate in place for over a minute, her hands playing with the bottom of her puffy coat. Most Hyūga were staid and dignified, but this one was acting like a kicked puppy.

Mere seconds before he was going to give up and say something, she finally spoke up. “Ano, uhh, U-Uchiha-san, uhh, you are...o-on Nar- err, U-Uzumaki-san's team, right?”

“Hn,” he replied.

She was now at least looking in his general direction, but was still stuttering and shuffling her feet, almost whispering her words. “I, I, I was trying to f-find him. I-I mean, he wasn't at...at his apartment and, uhh, he hasn't been there for several days,” she babbled, the words apologizing all the way out of her mouth. “D-do you know where he has g-gone?”

This was painful for Sasuke to watch, let alone listen to. Trying to avoid rubbing his temples to stave off a growing headache, he simply stood there, kunai put away and hand in his pocket, and waited, glaring at the stupid little girl. After a few seconds, she finally looked up at him, her worry evident on her face. She saw his neutral, blank look and immediately looked back down, her fingers twisting together hard in front of her. He was tiring of this, so finally answered her question.

“Yes,” he said, shortly and unhelpfully. He then turned around and started ignoring her again, resuming his practice session. After a few minutes, he noticed her presence moving away.

The next day she was back again. About 30 minutes into his practice, she simply walked up to the training area and waited at the edge of the trees, fidgeting and lightly scuffing the ground. He ignored her for the next hour, but she didn't leave. Once again tiring of her presence, he decided to confront the silly little Hyūga and get rid of her for good.

“What?” he demanded, turning to face her.

“A-ano, I w-wanted to ask about Naruto-kun,” she stammered, taking a few steps backward.

“Why?” he inquired briefly. Hinata gulped, stammering wordlessly for a bit. “I-I am w-worried about him. He's in trouble, I-I know it. I, I, I want to h-help,” she whispered, face red as a tomato.

“Hn,” he replied, not elaborating. She waited for him to continue for another minute, then realized he had no intention of giving her the answers she wanted. Eyebrows drawn together, she worked up her courage and tried again.

“W-will you tell me where he is, Uchiha-san?” she asked. Sasuke waited a few seconds, then said, “No.”

Hinata looked at him, shocked. “W-why not?” she asked, wide-eyed.

“I have no reason to help you. You are weak and annoying. Go away,” he said, glaring at her. She gasped then turned and fled. Smirking, he returned to his training.

The next day, he was just biding his time until the cast came off his arm and he could train seriously. When Hinata showed up again, pretending to hide behind a tree at the edge of the training area, his temper was already close to the breaking point.

Immediately stomping over to her “hiding” spot, he waited for her to come out from behind the tree while attempting to glare a hole through it with his mind. Though it never worked, he had high hopes that one day it would. Sasuke idly wondered if his brother could actually do that – burn holes in things with his mind.

She finally shuffled out, eyes firmly on the ground, hands clenched at her sides in tiny little fists. It was strange, he thought, she almost looked angry. Maybe she'd found a backbone – this should be interesting.

“U-Uchiha-san, p-please tell me w-where Naruto-kun is!” she demanded with a squeak while bowing far too low for their relative status, current social relationship, and being a Kami-damned ninja with some pride. He winced then schooled his face neutral, carefully making sure she didn't notice this was embarrassing him almost as much as her.

“No,” he said again. Still bowing humiliatingly, Hinata asked again. “P-please. I-I will do whatever you ask. I-I will leave you alone. J-just, p-please let me know w-where he is!”

“What you want does not concern me,” Sasuke growled, still glaring at her. “You have no idea what Naruto is dealing with, the kinds of enemies he faces.” Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he considered the trembling girl. “The way you are, weak and useless, it wouldn't matter if you knew where he was. You can't help him.” He stalked towards the girl, continuing to berate her. She gasped and took several steps back, raising her hands as if to fend off his words.

“Your cousin demolished you in the exam! You didn't even land a single telling blow on him!” he spat out. He was almost shouting, towering over her as she quavered in front of him. She was speechless now, staring up at him in horror, but he wouldn't relent.

Not even noticing that his Sharingan had turned on, he continued to glower at her, locking his eyes with slowly spinning comas onto her pale gray ones. She quailed before him, unable to run or even fight back. His killing intent was a heavy blanket over her, pressing down and locking her shaking legs in place.

“If that had been a mission, you would have failed yourself and your team. You would be dead and so would they.” Venting all of his frustration on the defenseless girl, he kept hammering her. Sasuke could sense her weakness clearly now and went right for it.

“Your cousin _tried_ to kill you in the exams. But Naruto _avoided_ killing your cousin in the finals. I heard detailed reports of that fight, and he could _easily_ have landed a killing blow. Instead, he spared the life of his fellow Leaf shinobi. But it was _his_ choice.

“As it is now, Naruto is as far beyond you as an average genin is from a civilian. What could you possibly hope to do for him? You can't help fight his current threats and he is moving further beyond your reach every day. You should just give up.”

Still looming over her, he expected Hinata to flee again at any moment. She seemed to collapse into herself, hiding deeper in the coat and staring at her feet – a turtle retreating into its shell. Then she suddenly stilled. Her hands stopped clutching her coat and balled into fists at her side.

“N-no, I can h-help him! I-I will help him! I, I, I will prove it to you!” she choked-out. Sasuke was shocked; turned out the princess could only be pushed so far. Thinking quickly, he considered whether Hinata could be useful to him. Some way she could help make him stronger.

The Byakugan did interest him, he realized. Given how well the Hyūga eyes did in Neji's fight against the blond idiot, it was obviously inferior to the Sharingan – there was no way he, the genius Uchiha, Rookie of the Year, could have been tricked that way by Naruto's clones. Something as simple as his glance, a muscle twitch, or a hitch in his breathing could have given away his plan. The Byakugan could show you everything around you but it didn't help with recognizing tiny details during combat.

Naruto had told him that, during Hinata's fight against Neji, Kakashi-sensei had said that the Byakugan was superior to the Uchiha's bloodline, but the results were clear. Before the Finals, Sasuke's analysis was that he was superior to Naruto, and the blond loser beat Neji, so obviously the Sharingan was better than the Byakugan. But now, with Itachi after his idiot teammate, who had strange powers and was now apparently being trained by one of the Kami-damned Sannin, this simple equation came into question.

Well, logically, he should start over and prove every step. Showing how much better he was than the Hyūga heiress would be a first step. Then, find and challenge Neji, and when Naruto returned, challenge the idiot. Victory at every point would confirm his superiority, total success would restore both honor to his clan and the feasibility of his life ambition: revenge.

He was now determined to show his eyes were better than the stuck-up Hyūga's and thus show how far beyond Naruto his potential was. If the idiot could only beat the Hyūga genius with silly tricks, piercing that bloodline's perfect defense in a straight forward spar would prove Sasuke's skills all the more. Sparing with this weak little princess would be a safe way to learn how to beat Neji's eyes.

“Hn,” Sasuke grunted out loud, pausing for a few more seconds. “Fine. I'll tell you where Naruto is.”

Hinata's head jerked up and she looked at him with hope in her eyes. Hope that died a second later.

“If you can beat me in a spar, that is,” he said, smirking as her face fell, despair once again claiming her. He figured she'd likely give up now and he'd just have to track Neji down himself. If not, well, Sasuke was still recovering and wouldn't be ready for Neji anytime soon so it wouldn't be a complete waste of time and might give him an edge against the genius.

But once again, his Sharingan tracked the subtle body language of someone finding something, somewhere deep inside, that wouldn't let them give up. She actually squared her shoulders. Sasuke was surprised to realize similarities to how Naruto reacted to the impossible – putting his head down and refusing to give up, no matter how unlikely victory was. Intriguing.

“I-I agree, U-Uchiha-san,” she stammered out, quietly resolute. “I w-will beat you, and then y-you'll tell me about...Naruto-kun.”

“Hn,” he grunted, then turned his back on her, intentionally being insulting. Once he'd reached the training post again, he spoke over his shoulder at the girl. “Your first chance will be this time tomorrow afternoon. Standard spar, nonlethal jutsu and equipment use. Standard Academy point system. No prepared ground or traps. This training ground, #72. You will lose, of course.”

She left a moment later without saying a word. Sasuke smirked again, looking forward to his first victory tomorrow. He only hoped she didn't fold immediately. At least Naruto could take a few hits before collapsing and spewing blood everywhere.

* * *

The door to Hinata's room had the hanging iron privacy sign up, like it usually did. Most branch house servants didn't even bother to check for it anymore and just left their Byakugan off when nearby. The system was as old as the Hyūga, and was designed to provide a modicum of privacy in a clan where literally everyone could see through walls.

When someone saw one of these shapes on the door, it meant turn off your eyes. The square cross inside a circle design was unique and the dense iron material made it show up easily even in a shadowy background of see-through objects. Hinata was aware that they had a similar one for bedrooms, specifically those of married couples, that was hung over the beds. It told people to leave their eyes off any time they passed near all that night, for obvious reasons.

Hinata's room was set far back from the rest of the compound, surrounded by gardens of lush flowers and herbs, a way of granting high-born main house members more privacy though distance. The area was only covered by external security, but that was done through a set of full-time guard patrols and posts making her one of the most secure persons in the village. Even the Hokage's office was usually less well protected. It hadn't been this way always. It was her fault, in a sense, as her kidnapping as a young child was the reason the clan lived in even more of a glass bubble now.

Before, quiet guards with their Byakugan off were the norm for the Hyūga clan compound, especially in the main house areas. Privacy was the primary concern back then. Now, everyone had their private lives invaded on a regular basis. Still, Hinata used the symbol on her door almost all the time. Even that wasn't enough for her, though.

Checking with her Byakugan for a third time in less than a minute (it took no extra power to activate, just a constant drain while it was on), she stood next to a clothes hamper in the in-suite bathroom and nervously started stripping off her training gear. The weapons belt had been left by the door, the dirty equipment to be cleaned later by house servants. She was wearing house slippers, her last pair of ninja shoes already with servants for cleaning. She kicked those off, then started carefully removing her dirty socks with shaking hands. Her Fire Country coat was next (part of a set, a present from the Fire Daimyō's court) and went on a hanger over the hamper, also to be carefully cleaned. The blue capri training pants went into the hamper. She was left in underpants, fishnet armor shirt, and quilted undershirt.

Hinata carefully shrugged the light, fitted mail over her head, then draped it over the free-standing mannequin bust in the corner. The thick, sweat-soaked undershirt went in the hamper. Clean sets of all of her training clothes were already waiting on a counter, left by her servants, but she didn't spare a minute to think about that. They knew her needs and anticipated them.

She was now completely unarmored, stripped of all defenses, almost naked and alone and terrified. She didn't have to be alone, there were servants she could call on, but she couldn't stand their presence, their pitying glances. The stress of being around them was enough to dissuade her from calling for help. At least she could get used to being alone and weak.

Her entire body shaking now she removed the rest of her underclothes, ending with her expensive exercise bra, one of a set Kurenai-sensei had bought for her as an Academy graduation present. Hinata hadn't let servants dress her since she was able to do so herself, preferring being left alone as much as possible. No one else had noticed she was way over due for one until she'd joined Team 8. She hadn't had any female friends (or really, friends at all) at the Academy and had the questionable fortune of being very early to develop.

She'd originally started wearing multiple layers of shirts and ninja armor to hide her developing breasts, but that hadn't worked forever. Eventually, some of the female instructors had started giving her odd looks and the other girls had noticed either her strange clothing or what she'd been trying to hide. Their whispering and glares hadn't helped her self-confidence, so she'd started wearing her coat all the time, even during the summer. When asked, she'd mumbled something about it being a family training requirement.

Everyone had left her alone after she started to wear the coat. Later, seeing how other large chested girls were treated by the cliques had cemented her decision. The lovely coat had continued to hide her breasts from jealous females and increasingly strange-acting boys, something Hinata saw as a good thing as she was by far the largest in her class, if not the school. Many of the teachers were less well endowed, a fact that only embarrassed her further.

Kurenai-sensei, usually serious but very up-beat, had looked like she wanted to kill someone when she'd finally found out about Hinata's...situation. It had been during the first week of their training as a new team. Sensei had called her over to another part of the training ground to privately ask Hinata to review her ninja equipment for inspection (a standard safety and training check), which had resulted in Hinata having to take off the coat and show her armor and layered shirts. After a few gentle but confused questions, Kurenai-sensei had canceled the rest of that day's practice and immediately took Hinata shopping, the older kunoichi grinding her teeth all the way to a high-end boutique store in the middle of the village.

She'd extracted a promise from Hinata to let her know when certain parts of the complicated clothing item started pinching or feeling uncomfortable. They'd had to go shopping twice since – after the second time, sensei had muttered something about jōnin expense accounts and bankrupting the Hokage and had worked out a private account with the store, charged to the Hyūga clan. Exercising was painless now and she didn't have to wear multiple layers of shirts to get some comfort and avoid poking out. She really liked the coats and still wore them, though.

After taking a shower and drying off, during which Hinata checked the area with her Byakugan 23 more times, she stood in front of her personal closet and looked in the full-length mirror, still shivering even though she wasn't cold. She didn't understand why the girls at the Academy said what they had about looking beautiful, but it was obvious from what she'd overheard and her reflection in the mirror that she wasn't. The longer she looked, the more sure Hinata was that she wasn't good enough for Naruto to notice; whatever boys liked about girls, she didn't measure up. Her head hung low and she stared at the ground, miserable.

She didn't have long, silky blond hair, wear nice makeup, walk around in delicate and expensive clothes, or have a closet full of shoes (whatever that meant). Her breasts were too large – which made her a bad person somehow, she didn't get why and the Academy girls hadn't explained – and she was too short and her hips were too wide; again according to the other girls, one needed to be tall and slender, with refined cheekbones, delicate feet, and long slim legs. She looked at the mirror again, seeing muscular thighs and calves, calloused feet and hands from long, hard training, arms with small, ropy muscles, and her plain, unremarkable face.

Because she was a Hyūga she also had weird eyes that no one liked. Thank Kami they'd never found out how Hyūga always accidentally saw under other people's clothes whenever the Byakugan was enabled. She wasn't sure they could have ostracized her any more but at least they hadn't hated her actively or tried to mess with her stuff or trip her in the halls, like those unpopular and mostly non-clan girls that were their usual targets. Young ninja in training had some very mean options at their disposal.

Sliding open the large walk-in closet near the back of her suite of rooms, the one furthest from the entrance, with her still shaking hands, she took another clean, gray coat off a hanger and a leather sheathed kunai from her equipment store on the shelf. Naked except for the unzipped coat, she dragged the blankets and pillows off her sleeping pad and arranged them inside the closet in a carefully jumbled little nest (Byakugan checked 11 more times) then grabbed a clean, dry towel from the bathroom.

She shakily arranged a couple of pillows, the sheets, and what was supposed to be her nightdress on the bed to look like someone about her size was sleeping there. It might give her enough time to run or sound an alarm if a kidnapper or assassin went for that first, she thought, the familiar fear almost overwhelming her. Retreating to the closet and closing the door almost all the way (so she could still hear out), she curled up in the blankets. She knew sleep was still far away, though.

Hinata suffered from nightly insomnia. Every time she started to get comfortable, something would pop into her head – a worry about the next day's training, something about letting down her sensei, her failure at the exams, a horrible vision of her teammates dying in battle, something. Tonight it was Naruto-kun and what might have happened to him.

He'd simply disappeared. His loud, pink-haired teammate had no idea where he was and didn't seem to care. Tracking down the raven-haired Uchiha had been a lot harder. She'd followed him back from the hospital the other day to the gates of the Uchiha compound easily enough. She'd thought about sneaking in but in the end, she'd simply arrived early one morning and staked-out the old, empty compound until he left for training. She'd naïvely thought she could simply ask him for the information and be on her way. But the strangely quiet boy wouldn't tell her anything for free, and now she had to do something impossible to get what he knew about Naruto-kun.

She wasn't stupid. She'd seen a little of how he'd fought in the Chūnin Exam. He was almost as good as cousin Neji, and likely faster. He was certainly mean like Neji and also quietly determined. After finding out his sensei was in the hospital, she knew he didn't have to run missions or do team training, but he was still out there training obsessively on his own.

Maybe she'd get lucky. He wouldn't be able to use lethal blows and Jūken could disable him easily. She'd go in with her strongest disabling blows and end it fast, just like Neji had tried to against Naruto. If it hadn't been for that strange, red chakra, she was sure poor Naruto would have lost against the Jūken, the strongest taijutsu technique in Konoha, if not the entire entire ninja world. Naruto had fought so bravely against Neji even though the odds at looked impossible, but he'd been so determined. And he'd won!

She spent several long minutes staring into the darkness, trying to calm her mind, but it wasn't to be. Her mind roiled furiously, unable to settle, one meaningless thought following another. Then a lifeline appeared and thoughts of a different sort started, turning her mind to Naruto. She surrendered to the inevitable hungers, as she did most nights, and shifted a little on the blankets to arrange her towel, switching her sheathed kunai to her left and off-hand.

Thinking back as she readied herself, she remembered the relief she'd felt after that sex-ed class for the girls at the Academy. It had left her dizzy and red-faced for the rest of the day but also deeply reassured her. Given just before they graduated, it was obviously to prepare them for some of the rumored chūnin-level classes about seduction and such that older kunoichi were expected to know, but most of the girls didn't take it seriously and simply giggled and said things like “eww” and “gross.” Hinata, though, had been genuinely worried about some of the things she'd been feeling and doing.

Having to have the servants tell her about periods a couple of years earlier had been embarrassing enough, there had been no way she'd ask them about this other thing. It being mentioned, if only in passing in an academic setting, had reassured her, as had the emphasis of it being completely natural and even helpful in relieving stress. Kami knew she had enough of that. Not having been given...details on the act in the class, she'd simply worked it out for herself.

Trying to relax and put an end the nervous shaking, she continued to think about Naruto. How kind he was to her; well, when he even noticed her that was. Even though the villagers treated him so mean, he kept a simple smile on his face and in his heart. Always training so seriously by himself, doing endless pushups and punching exercises.

She thought about how she'd finally gotten up the courage to take a good, long look at him a few months ago with her Byakugan while she'd been spying on him training one day. She knew it was wrong but she did it anyway, and the memories were worth it. What his body looked like, naked under the full power of her eyes. How he'd moved, how good he'd looked running through his taijutsu katas – so different from her training but so powerful and energetic. The sheathed kunai dropped unnoticed from her hand and into the bedding.

She started breathing faster, her mind pulling up full, three-dimensional memories of her idol. Lost in fantasy now, she thought of things that had never happened, might never happen, probably never would happen. She imagined what it would be like to hold his hand and stare into his eyes. How it would feel to hold him close, to stroke his firm body, to have his large hands hold her face, to have him kiss her lips. How safe she'd feel with him curled up at her side. How he'd hold her close...and eventually move his hands down, and...she turned her Byakugan on and left it on, pushing her hands under the edges of the coat.

Hinata had found something strange while experimenting one night – her area of total vision included her own chakra system, of course, but what happened while she was comforting herself was amazing. Like a fireworks show starting inside her body and spreading with every touch, she would glow with internal light. She loved to watch it and had even tried to figure out a way to use the pressure points she knew to gently assist and enhance what she saw.

That was when she'd made the greatest discovery of her life: a new technique she didn't even have a name for, something that enhanced her own pleasure to impossible levels. She now had to pace-out her nightly sessions to avoid ending them too quickly – too sore and exhausted to continue. In her dirtiest thoughts, she had considered the name “Fingers of Ecstasy,” but that was too embarrassing to even think about writing down in a jutsu scroll.

Her right hand drifted over her body, trained into precision with much practice, touching _here_ and _there_ over and over again, with firm, chakra-enhanced, almost jūken-like taps. Not hitting chakra points to close and overload them, she instead stimulated pleasure points and enhanced nervous-tissue centers for higher sensitivity. She could see her entire body as a whole, chakra and flesh, and though she was embarrassed by how shameless and ugly she looked compared to refined women, it still turned her on to see herself like this.

Her eyes were squeezed closed now but with her Byakugan activated, she could still see clearly everything around her, every inch of her own body. She dragged her other hand down over her chest, working under her unzipped coat, lightly brushing, just bumping the underside of...then moving further down, skipping over to her inner thighs, all the way down to her knees, then back up again. Leaning back further into the soft blankets, her coat hanging open, she slowly rocked side to side. Her back started to bow, muscles tensing and releasing savagely. Hypersensitive now, every finger touch felt like a knife of pleasure, every stroke a bolt of lightning made of ecstasy – even the slight movement of her chest from breathing set her body on fire.

Her anticipation increased enormously as she watched her own growing orgasm in her deep chakra systems while at the same time saw her physical body covered in sweat and her legs starting to shake. Eventually she stopped holding herself at the edge and allowed her body to fall off the cliff and reach the end, one hand violently clutched to her chest, the other between her legs. Her heels slammed into the floor, toes clenched into knots.

She saw her entire body convulse and seem to explode in her vision with light, then her mind shut down as well as her Byakugan. When she came to, she simply lay there and shook for minutes – she didn't know how many – this time with a different emotion and with her mind and body on fire.

After the last waves of comforting pleasure had drifted away, Hinata carefully cleaned herself up. Her limbs were still numb and boneless feeling as she sighed deeply, able at last to relax completely. Checking the area with her Byakugan one last time, she finally started to drift off to sleep, her hand again gripping the kunai under the covers, but now steady as a rock.


	3. Chapter 3

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
** by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

 **Disclaimer** : Naruto isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Well, he'd just won their first sparing match and looked good doing it. But, on the other hand, well...he couldn't feel his other hand anymore. Hinata was lying in the dust, riddled with senbon but still quite alive. He was almost untouched, excluding his numb arm, but wasn't looking forward to their next match. Seemed like he still had some work to do figuring out the weaknesses of the Byakugan or defeating Neji would remain a dream.

“If this is the slacker princess heiress of the Hyūga, how much stronger is their number-one genius?” he wondered.

It had started out really disappointing for the Uchiha heir. Hinata had met him at training ground #72 for their first match, on time if a little reluctantly. It was a sunny day with not a cloud in the sky and he was ready to fight. He was also ready to call everything off if this didn't get more interesting very quickly.

Sasuke didn't say a word, merely glowering at Hinata as she walked up. “So incredibly weak,” he thought, watching her knees shake as she closed the distance. He was surprised she'd actually showed up at all, half-assuming the Hyūga might just give-up and go hide for a while instead. She stood there, hands worrying each other in front of her coat, seemingly unsure what to do. “Might as well get this over with,” he thought.

“Begin,” he barked. She jumped as if electrocuted.

They were facing off in an open area away from the training posts and river. The grass was marred by repeated use but it was otherwise featureless. Hinata was still dressed in that stupid coat gray and blue capri pants, with no weapons pouches or scrolls of any kind visible. How did she hope to beat him without any ranged weapons of any kind? As she finally took a wobbly stance, Sasuke tried to figure out how to make this anything but a waste of his time.

Not even bothering to take a ready stance himself, he simply activated his Sharingan and waited, hands loose at his sides. With all his practice before the chūnin finals, he could now essentially keep it on all the time (the chakra drain was now that low), but the headaches that much use caused weren't worth it outside a mission. He might not need it now, but he knew it was really intimidating. It was funny to see her eyes (Byakugan still not activated) grow wide – so, definitely worth it.

She didn't seem to know how to respond and simply stood there in her shaky stance. Still, he waited. Beating on a weak little girl wouldn't be educational at all – he needed her to activate her eyes and actually attack him. He slowly raised one hand (noticing her flinch even at that) and pointed directly at her. She shivered, but just seemed confused. He then turned his hand palm-up, formed a partial fist, and gestured her over with his index finger, a smirk on his face.

She frowned but started forward slowly, holding her stance. He lowered his hands and shook his head, slowly forming a seal, then simply shunshined to another side of the clearing, flanking her to one side. She quickly adjusted her facing, but didn't attempt to actually intercept him. As she started forward slowly again, he again made a negative motion and gestured her forward with his entire hand, turning it into a mocking wave.

Eyebrows knitted together, she dropped her stance and started running forward at a pathetic speed. He scoffed loudly and immediately sent a handful of shuriken straight at the dark-haired genin, his hands a blur, causing her to shriek and dodge to the side, barely avoiding the speeding blades. She looked back up at him surprised, hands held defensively in front of her body. So useless, he thought.

Sighing deeply, he again flicked his hand, a kunai burying itself inches from her feet. She still didn't get it for a few seconds then finally picked up the knife awkwardly. Looking even more bored, Sasuke casually threw more shuriken, watching as she continued to barely avoid them, having to deflect several with the borrowed kunai and wildly running sideways to present the hardest to hit target. Correct for evasion, but not gaining her any ground – there was no way she would win this way.

“Activate your Byakugan and fight, you idiot,” he growled at last. “What use are you if you can't even close with your enemy?”

She stumbled to a halt, clutching the knife in front of her, gulping down air in quick gasps. “Attack me or leave, weakling,” he said. Hinata clutched the knife tighter and glared at him. “Good,” he thought, “she's finally actually getting angry. Or whatever useless, flower-based emotions weak little kunoichi have in its place.”

Ah, now she was charging him again. Still no shunshin or chakra-enhanced steps, just running straight at him. At least Naruto tried to use clones to run around you or hide inside a cloud of clones or throw clones at you or disguise clones as weapons and...throw them at you. Well, mostly he used lots of clones, but he used them _offensively_.

This time, he just stood and let her come. When she was within a few yards, he threw a handful of senbon at her, hoping to knock her off balance. In an instant, her eyes activated and she dodged straight through the speeding needles, closing into taijutsu range while throwing the kunai at him. He saw it coming a mile away and simply dodged it. Then she was in close range, hands empty but still dangerous.

Her first strike was fast and aimed at his shoulder, but looked like it was part of a kata and sort of reflexively thrown out there for no reason – it was easy to dodge with minimal movement using his Sharingan and his straight counter-punch rocked her back on her heels as she took it clumsily on a cross-block. A rapid series of blows caused him to take a few steps back but none actually hit and he stopped backing away and started blocking them.

She made a snake-like strike at his arm, but he saw it coming and was already throwing a short kick at her right leg. Dancing away, she suddenly no longer had a leg there and was crouching to (his Sharingan spin furiously, showing him all he subtle muscle twitches) strike at his leg with her right hand, index finger, three inches up his calf. Before her hand had moved more than an inch forward, his leg was already rotating away, his body sliding and spinning sideways in snap cartwheel. Her altered strike missed his body by two inches.

A fraction of a second after he started his next counter attack with his other leg (a powerful kick to her shoulder) he realized she was prepared for that and would simply shift four inches to her left and disable his entire leg. “Ah,” he thought, “so _that_ is why no one kicks a Jūken user – a single mistake and you are fighting on one leg.”

Turning the kick into a one-quarter feint (she flinched and started the counter he predicted, only to see the attack withdrawn), he continued to skid sideways then suddenly anchored himself with one foot, swinging around to Hinata's back. The two punch combo he used went directly over her deeply bowed head and back as she easily dodged the attack. Then she was spinning around and striking at him with both hands in an upward-sweeping move, like a crashing wave. There had been no hesitation and she had reacted as if she had eyes in the back of her head.

The two tomoe in each of Sasuke eyes continued to spin faster and faster, his senses stretching out and her chakra presence growing clearer. He could see strange possibilities stretching out from her tensed limbs. Attacks which would wound or kill him, depending on how much power she used and if they hit. It was beginning to feel like he was boxed in, only a few moves resulting in anything but failure. Her hands were _fast_. He dodged a few halfhearted attacks, working a retreating defense to try and draw out more of her taijutsu technique while avoiding disabled limbs, or worse.

He hadn't landed any telling blows on her yet but she was already starting to flag – this intense defense and all the failed jūken strikes seemed to take a lot out of her. He'd been able to see every strike coming so far and she wasn't significantly faster than he was. Well, her strikes were faster but she moved on her feet like a sleepy cow, only less aggressive. Sasuke tried to think how best to end this depressingly bad spar. Maybe he should demonstrate that ninjas needed to use techniques more complicated and dangerous than flower-arranging and specialized clan taijutsu.

Gripping the ground with his chakra through his feet, he suddenly disengaged. Hinata simply stood there like a stunned pigeon as he removed her only advantage, not even attempting to re-engage by closing the distance again. Shaking his head, he took a short breath, formed some quick hand seals, and shot a small burst of flame at her, mostly aimed at the ground in front of her. Not enough to do any actual damage – a quickly opened stove was almost as hot – but it was distracting and smoky.

He threw some shuriken into the smoke and flames immediately and then hopped diagonally back while firing a couple of spreads of senbon at her previous location, carefully aimed to fly past her into the ground if they missed. He was sure she could see through the flames but needed to know how far she could see all around her, hence the plan: if she could see him throw them, she'd dodge. If she couldn't see him and didn't see the weapons in time (as they were small and fast) she'd take some hits.

He bounced sideways into a tree, holding still for a second. Eyes spinning, he analyzed the ground beyond the smoke cloud. Time seemed to wind back and he could almost see a ghostly Hinata in the smoke, dodging some needles, taking hits from others, leaving dodged senbon...there, there, and...there. Taking that information, he plotted his approach carefully to avoid what he guessed was her maximum Byakugan's range. Landing again and shunshining carefully around behind her he prepared to end this match.

Hinata stumbled backward out of the cloud of smoke, a few senbon dotting her arms, crouching and remaining totally still, staring straight ahead. Yep, he'd ranged her 360-degree vision correctly. Shunshining directly at her, then again slightly to her off-hand side, he wound up for a knife-handed finger strike – exactly like the Chidori, just without the lightning release. He didn't actually want to kill the stupid little idiot, after all. Someone might get mad at him. Maybe.

But she spotted him the second he was within range. He saw the muscle groups to her hands flex, her shoulders move, her hips shift, her feet twitch, and the likely moves like ghosts around her limbs. Too slow, though. So many rejected moves already started. Her even _thinking_ about her response was far too slow for this speed, his speed. His eyes could see the results, tracking her arm as it came around. Then she shifted her hips again and he saw something that blew his plan out of a tree.

Her hidden hand was already moving forward, palm out and aimed directly at his chest – he could see the chakra surrounding it but there was no knowing what that would do to him. His options were rapidly falling away. It was too late now. He would hit her but not with a killing blow, so she would also get her strike in, and a jūken to the chest was no laughing matter. She might not be good enough to safely use that in a spar and he couldn't take that chance. There had to be a way out, though. He frantically went over the possibilities again, finding nothing. He couldn't win as it was. If that connected, she'd score the win as his body hit the ground, either stunned or lifeless. So he changed the problem.

Fine, he would take the hit, but on his _arm_. The fake-Chidori would be a strike to her solar plexus, dropping her like a rock, and winning him the match. She'd adjust her strike to his off-hand parry, most likely disabling his arm, but that wouldn't stop his body blow from landing.

Sasuke nudged his body to one side, whipping up his other arm to block. She moved targets and struck it, causing more pain than Sasuke was expecting, but he simply took it and continued with his attack as the arm grew limp. Then his other hand, fingers stuff, connected with her midsection. Everything was in slow-motion to his eyes: her soft flesh absorbing the blow, tiny body flexing, bending over; her feet losing traction as she flew backward, her legs losing control and folding; her arms wrapping around her torso as she doubled-over in pain; her knees hitting the ground, then her shoulders. He saw her Byakugan's chakra fall away just as her head hit the ground, her face turning away from him.

He bounced back two large steps, his right arm (hit three inches above the elbow) hanging useless and tingly at his side. His Sharingan started spinning down, still active but no longer running wild as time seemed to return to normal. Hinata was gagging and gasping on the ground, arms wrapped around herself, totally defeated. He carefully moved away, keeping an eye on her and not turning his back, then sat down on a tree stump at the edge of the clearing. She'd thrown up by now and was making some choking and spitting noises, one hand still around her stomach, the other shakily propping her up off the ground.

Sasuke had arranged his arm so it wasn't obvious his right wasn't working – he couldn't show any weakness in case she wanted to try attacking him again in revenge. He didn't know if she knew the attack had connected and done damage, so his arms were carefully propped on his legs. He kept a very close eye on his opponent, who still struggled in the dirt.

He briefly considered the differences in two jūken users sparing and one doing the same with anyone else, especially someone able to predict their moves. The chest strike she had aimed at him would likely have beat any other, lesser jūken strike if he hadn't seen it coming. It had been a hidden-blade strike, obscured by her body and perfectly disguised until it was too late. Her target had been the center of his chest, his heart. His solar plexus blow against her wouldn't have been crippling if it had actually been a jūken strike, though it might have done deep tissue damage.

About a minute later, she was still half sitting up, picking senbon and a few shuriken out of her arms and sides. Her back was still to him and she was avoiding looking back at him. Once she'd finished cleaning herself up, she attempted to stand, failing several times before her legs would hold her up again. Her shoulders heaved a few times as she tried to straighten up fully, then she gave that up and stayed half crouched, arms still wrapped around her stomach. She swayed in place for awhile before stumbling out of the training area, still not looking back at him, leaving the blood-smeared weapons next to a pile of vomit.

* * *

Sitting in his office at a low, traditionally-styled table, Hiashi Hyūga reviewed the latest in a long line of disappointing reports on his eldest daughter, the last item left to deal with that night. According to branch house bodyguards, she had been involved in a violent but entirely legal spar with another genin. That the genin was the Uchiha heir only made it more embarrassing for his clan.

It was a secret report (which meant that the clan elders would take an entire day to find out about it) and Hiashi didn't like to think how they'd react to her complete defeat at the hands of a hated Uchiha. He didn't have anything against the now-almost-dead clan, but the older members of the elders council had gone though the ugly inner-clan conflicts 60 years ago and were still bitter about it.

Once they found out, Hinata's life was in even more danger. Though they wouldn't be open about it, the elders were not happy about the current clan heir, seeing her as weak, but not weak in a way they could easily manipulate, and also uselessly kind-hearted. That she also seemed to harbor pro-branch house feelings, including disapproving of the clan's cursed seal, only increased their dislike of the gentle young girl. This latest revelation might speed up Hiashi's timetable and force his hand.

He had to remove Hinata from the clan leadership inheritance track, officially making her sister Hanabi the next and only conceivable heir. The old men wouldn't like it if Hinata's children were ever even possible contenders for the position, as that could create a succession fight that would tear the clan apart. That the branch house might support her kin in such a fight firmed up their resolve in removing the danger his eldest daughter represented.

Hinata thankfully wouldn't have to receive the cursed seal if she was somehow disinherited or removed from the family, unlike his own twin brother, as the clan's leadership role and the very power of the eyes itself was passed down only through the male line. All they'd need to do is make sure a Hyūga didn't marry her and she'd be safe. Or at least as safe as a silly child playing ninja could be.

It was peculiar that at this time, this very day, his gentle daughter had finally started showing some of the forcefulness required of a leader. It was too little too late, though, and not in a manner appealing to the stoic Hyūga elders. The minutes-old report on her trashing her room was quite strange. She'd left palm-holes in the walls, a kunai stuck in a ceiling joist, and smears of blood on the carpet and in the bathroom.

Panicked servants discovering this had almost immediately found her asleep, self-bandaged, and hidden in her closet clutching a kunai. For some reason, Hinata had left the privacy symbol off her door when she had returned earlier, otherwise they might not have tried to clean the room and wouldn't have discovered her. Coming to a conclusion, he sent back an order to the servants to leave her alone, trusting Hinata to take care of herself as she always did.

He sighed deeply but silently to himself. “At least she didn't stab anyone this time,” he thought grimly. The last time she'd forgotten the symbol, a servant had come in to drop off some laundry and had been injured in the leg by a surprised Hinata. The odd girl had been hiding in the closet with a knife taking a nap and hadn't recognized the poor woman. The house servants now treated her room as a hostile battlefield, making sure to clap at the door and loudly announce themselves, checking every corner and activating their Byakugan just in case to scan everywhere, even when the privacy symbol wasn't in place. When it was, they usually didn't dare enter, simply waiting until she took it down as she left her quarters.

She brought fear to the hearts of her servants, but such bizarre behavior wasn't enough to show the inner strength of character required to serve as clan head. Hinabi was strong and reserved and would be accepted by the elders but Hinata still needed protecting. It was a good thing he'd already worked out a plan that could be modified to fix this situation, one that should keep his beloved daughter safe and also help to resolve his other, much stranger duties to a clan not his own. Leaning forward over the paperwork, he began the official documents that would change at least two young people's lives forever.

* * *

What felt like the hundredth stone corridor he'd wandered down (but must have been only into the second dozen) was where he'd hit the jackpot – a large wooden door at the end of the otherwise empty corridor with a metal plate on it, labeled “Library”. Shoving the creaking door open, Sasuke saw endless lines of shelves with dusty scrolls, stretching out into the darkness. Searching around the entryway for a light, he finally found it and flicked it on.

The room was huge, more like a warehouse than a library. Since it was on the underground level behind the Sharingan-locked high-security door, he assumed it wasn't simply full of clan financial reports and birth records like some of the other storerooms, but rather something more dangerous: secret clan hideouts, jutsu technique scrolls, and other Uchiha treasures. This was even better than the huge underground training room, the bunker with hundreds of living quarters and food storage lockers (with preservation seals on them, keeping the food fresh), or the vault in the high-security area filled entirely with finely crafted weapons, all with the Uchiha clan symbol engraved on them.

Realizing he'd been holding his breath, Sasuke let it out in a long sigh and started wandering down the rows of shelves, protests from his aching legs ignored. He had hours until dinner, plenty of time to start exploring these new shelves. He knew that finding this hidden inheritance would change his life forever.


	4. Chapter 4

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
** by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

 **Disclaimer** : Naruto isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter Four**

The start of their second match had looked promising. He had once again been surprised to see her return, the very next day after their first spar and her complete defeat.

Hinata didn't say a word, just walked directly to the open field, hands clenched at her sides. She took a stance then waited for him to take his place at the other side of the clearing, Byakugan activated, her face a mask. This time, she was wearing an equipment pouch and seemed more ready. Her stance was firmer and she looked determined.

She had also apparently learned from her first session. The moment he said “begin,” she charged him with a kunai drawn. She'd deflected most of the shuriken and almost reached him when he simply shunshined away and resumed pelting her with senbon and shuriken. She continued to run around on the ground at sadly slow speeds, chasing after him and attempting to close.

“Maybe she isn't able to use shunshin in combat yet?” he thought. There were also no kawarimi attempts, the obvious counter to some of his ultra-fast, high-volume ranged attacks.

After about three minutes of being used as a pincushion, she simply threw down her kunai and stumbled out of the training ground. She had been bleeding from several moderately deep shuriken hits, but he hadn't been putting any chakra into either the blades or his arm to strengthen his hits, so nothing would have been seriously damaged. Still, they were real weapons and left real wounds. He wasn't expecting her the next day.

So of course she showed up the next day, ready to spar again. Her hands were wrapped in white bandages, as were her ankles and lower calves, the bandages disappearing up under her pants and down her arms and under her coat. Her neck was wrapped as well, with some medical tape covering cuts on her face.

Hinata had dark circles under her eyes now and she moved like she was sleepwalking. As well as being covered in bandages, she seemed to be limping a little. Sasuke decided he'd try some close combat again – there was no point in a repeat of yesterday. Activating his Sharingan he sighed. It might be that bad anyway, it looked like a strong breeze would knock her over. She wasn't even holding her kunai this time. He took out one of his own, intending to force her into a knife fight.

He said “begin” and she was suddenly two feet in front of him. His eyes had tracked her shunshin, three quick bursts of speed, with her hands folded into the single seal. In his sped-up vision, her hands were slowly separating, snapping toward his body, two striking snakes. Her eyes were as fully activated as his now, veins standing out on her face. He could see time slow down and stared at the sight before him.

Chakra slowly leaked out of her eyes, pumped by the bulging veins on her temples. Her short hair was streaming out almost horizontal behind her, whipping in the wind of her impossibly fast travel. Hinata's mouth was a thin line, lips paled, and her brow was furrowed in concentration. Deadly hands were slowly, painfully slowly, reaching out to his shoulders, glowing with chakra – a combo strike to end this fight instantly. He could see his own defeat looming in the perfection of her technique.

For the tiniest fraction of a second, his new curse mark burned on his neck like ice and fire and poison, dark power trying to pry against Kakashi's seal and almost causing him to flinch. Weeks of training took over and he instantly reasserted his will – no damn snake Sannin pervert's hickey was interfering with _his_ fight. Itachi hadn't had to use someone else's power to grow strong and nether would he. He would find a way to win on his own and prove his strength!

It was too late to shunshin away – she was too close and there wasn't time to mold the chakra. Hell, she might be fast enough to intercept anyway. A kawarimi similarly needed proper preparation – he still couldn't do one instantly and without seals, like Kakashi, without planning and molding chakra ahead of time. He also couldn't slip away with chakra enhanced traction having been caught flat-footed. But she was slightly, ever so slightly, over extended. His kunai was still in his hand. Quick, almost instant calculation: yes. He could do this. This first strike was a strong one, but he could survive it. The problem was her follow up at close range. He didn't have a shot at a truly disabling body blow – even if a fatal blow with his knife was allowed, it wasn't a sure thing – so preventing that inevitable second, follow-up juken strike was his goal. It was possible but it would hurt, hopefully her more than him. His Shringan spun wildly, showing him his way out.

Once again, Sasuke twisted his body, avoiding and blocking one strike with his off-hand while fully expecting that arm to be disabled with the follow up. The kunai in his left hand whipped up and he stabbed Hinata's striking right hand, holding onto the blade now anchoring her in place and reducing her maneuverability. Thus held, he had one last strike to make before he lost use of his right arm, so he made the only move he had time for: he throw a zero-windup right jab straight into her left tit, as hard as he could.

The idea for that strike wasn't a very chivalrous one, true, but he'd seen how effective it was in his last year of the Academy during sparing practice. Choji, goaded into actually throwing punches for once, was sparing with Ino. The 12 year old girl wasn't exactly well developed in the chest area compared to some of the older genin teenagers, but was still considered “rookie of the year” among the females in his class with what she did have.

Poor Choji had accidentally tagged her on her boob, a complete mistake as most of the boys were a little leery of striking their female classmates anywhere but the arms, legs, and shoulders. Not very good practice, but the fear of being embarrassed or worse, being ripped apart by angry young kunoichi for taking advantage of them in a spar, was greater than both their and their instructor's common sense.

Choji's eyes had actually been closed and it was not a very strong strike, but Ino still yelled in shock, body hunching around the injury immediately. Then the instructors had to keep Ino and the rest of the girls from beating a confused and scared Choji unconscious. Sasuke didn't think the fa-...err, “husky” boy even understood what he'd done wrong.

Interestingly, Hinata's coat seemed to have been obscuring hidden...attributes. Resisting pausing to grope someone in the middle of a spar was not officially part of his Academy training, but didn't seem like a good idea. However, it was obvious she was much better developed than he had expected. Not that any of that mattered to the him as he was about to lose function and feeling in that arm.

The expected disabling strike still took out his right shoulder, but then she immediately tried to pull away from the knife stabbing into her hand. Her entire body jerked back from the blow to her chest and her shoulder rolled reflexively to protected her abused breast. All thought of follow-up attacks left her mind as a look of shock exploded on her face. Sasuke heard her gasp and say something that sounded suspiciously like “fuck!” as her un-stabbed hand went to cover the lesser, but more insulting, injury.

Letting go of his kunai, still embedded in Hinata's right hand, Sasuke finally had the opportunity to take a couple of chakra enhanced slides back, giving him the space to survive. Reaching for a special pouch, he pulled out his secret weapon. Hinata was regaining her balance and starting to make moves toward him again, pulling the kunai out of her hand as she ran. Time to shut that down.

Seven kunai with ninja wire attached flew from Sasuke's left hand in quick succession but his right arm now hung useless at his side, slowing down and complicating the move. Hinata wasn't so out of it that she didn't dodge all seven, but she appeared to be too distracted to notice the hidden danger. Taking her hand off her bruised breast, breath ragged and an actual snarl on her face, she started to make the shunshin hand seal again. If he hadn't been about to win in less than a second, Sasuke might have been intimidated and even impressed.

Grabbing one set of the hidden wires in his mouth, stomping another into the ground with an eighth kunai he'd dropped earlier, and holding the third in his left hand, he yanked on all while quickly dashing back again. The wires attached to his kunai whipped around, briefly confusing even the Byakugan with the complex net of metal. Hinata shouted and thrashed briefly as her body was wrapped in the ninja wire trap.

Sasuke cursed quietly, seeing her right arm was still free. He couldn't send fire down the wires (far too dangerous) nor electricity. No killing strikes possible due to the rules of the spar and she was still on her feet, so he couldn't even claim a knockdown point. He couldn't hit her with anything else without letting go of the wires. “Shit!” he thought, seeing her start to _saw through_ his ninja wire with her bare hands. That shouldn't be possible!

Hinata's free hand moved blisteringly fast, not cutting the wires around her body but the ones behind her, attached to the ground and keeping her in place. With those cut, she started running straight at him again without interference, one arm still bound at her side but rapidly being freed with her other hand, blue chakra flickering over her fingers.

Taking a deep breath, he dropped the wires in his still-functioning left hand and pulled out a full brace of a half-dozen flash bombs, setting them to a single second delay with a burst of chakra. But by that time, Hinata had closed most of the distance to him and had both arms free again with her hands forming the shunshin seal.

He meant to throw the bombs next to Hinata while closing his eyes to avoid the blinding flashbomb explosion, but he couldn't do that with her on the move and ready to shunshin. His mind raced and his eyes spin, but he didn't see how he could win this fight without blinding both himself and Hinata. So he simply dropped the bombs at his feet, eyes still wide open. Hinata shunshined within two feet of him before they hit the ground.

The bombs went off, chakra and specialized fireworks blinding both chakra senses and normal vision. Hinata screamed. Someone else, him maybe, was also screaming but in a much more manly way. “Good Kami,” he thought, “that really fucking hurts!”

Everything was white and he couldn't see Hinata now but he knew where she was less than a tenth of a second ago. He struck out with his left leg, hitting her a glancing blow on the shoulder. Sharingan still active, he found he was able to predict a rough location for her face and blindly sent his working fist at it, connecting with the side of her face. As predicted, he thought, starting to smirk.

And then both of her fists started slamming into his head, one after the other, each blow followed by a whimpering grunt from Hinata as she hit him as hard as she could. Not juken strikes, just basic, Academy-approved closed-fist bricks to the side of his head. “She's actually surprisingly strong,” he thought, head ringing from the blows he wasn't able to deflect with his arms, “but it is time to finally end this.”

Again using some minor part of the Sharingan, he found her location based on the way she was beating on his face – the vectors of force showing his mind's eye (his physical ones were still burning in pain) the general location he needed to hit. Wrapping his left hand and arm around her right arm as she predictably came in for another strike – a problem with regular and organized blows like this was the Sharingan could predict them quite well – he stepped in with a devastating rising knee to her stomach. Not waiting to see how effective it was and still half-way off the ground, he continued to slide his working hand up to the collar of her coat, griping it firmly. He then blindly brought her head down into his other knee with a jerk and immediately felt her nose crunch against his leg. Slightly off target, but still disabling. Pushing off her awkwardly with one leg, he flipped backward and away. Somehow, he got his feet under himself and managed to land with only a slight stumble.

Trying to remember exactly where he was, he skipped back a dozen steps and waited for his sight to return, leaving the Sharingan on in case it could help him pick up some clues from his other senses. Standing perfectly still, he heard a body hit the ground with a thud. He'd won the spar, he guessed.

Standing there, feeling blood drip down his chin from a split lip, he reviewed the fight in his head. The perfect Sharingan memory, at least up to the point he blinded himself, was telling. He had almost lost that one, even though Hinata had looked and moved like shit. “Woo, go me,” he thought sarcastically, “I beat up a half-dead, flower-loving, weak little kunoichi and only _almost_ lost the fight.” If this had been a real battle, her teammates would have killed him, he knew. Standing there blinded, he would be dead in moments.

Sighing as his vision finally started to return, he looked over to where Hinata lay on the ground in a heap of ninja wire and dust. The Sharingan told him she was not unconscious but he couldn't immediately tell what she was doing or how injured she was. She was folded on her side, legs akimbo on the ground, arms hugged to her body.

And back heaving.

Because she was crying silently.

“Damn it. Ninja don't cry, little girls cry,” he thought, staring at her silently.

“Fuck,” he realized, “I beat up a little girl and made her cry. Now what?”


End file.
